Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Sun Java:
Daniel Soeder discovered that a long codebase attribute string in a
JNLP file will overflow a stack variable when launched by Java WebStart
(CVE-2007-3655).
Multiple vulnerabilities (CVE-2007-2435, CVE-2007-2788,
CVE-2007-2789) that were previously reported as GLSA 200705-23 and GLSA
200706-08 also affect 1.4 and 1.6 SLOTs, which was not mentioned in the
initial revision of said GLSAs.
The Zero Day Initiative, TippingPoint and John Heasman reported
multiple buffer overflows and unspecified vulnerabilities in Java Web
Start (CVE-2008-1188, CVE-2008-1189, CVE-2008-1190,
CVE-2008-1191).
Hisashi Kojima of Fujitsu and JPCERT/CC reported a security issue
when performing XSLT transformations (CVE-2008-1187).
CERT/CC reported a Stack-based buffer overflow in Java Web Start
when using JNLP files (CVE-2008-1196).
Azul Systems reported an unspecified vulnerability that allows
applets to escalate their privileges (CVE-2007-5689).
Billy Rios, Dan Boneh, Collin Jackson, Adam Barth, Andrew Bortz,
Weidong Shao, and David Byrne discovered multiple instances where Java
applets or JavaScript programs run within browsers do not pin DNS
hostnames to a single IP address, allowing for DNS rebinding attacks
(CVE-2007-5232, CVE-2007-5273, CVE-2007-5274).
Peter Csepely reported that Java Web Start does not properly
enforce access restrictions for untrusted applications (CVE-2007-5237,
CVE-2007-5238).
Java Web Start does not properly enforce access restrictions for
untrusted Java applications and applets, when handling drag-and-drop
operations (CVE-2007-5239).
Giorgio Maone discovered that warnings for untrusted code can be
hidden under applications' windows (CVE-2007-5240).
Fujitsu reported two security issues where security restrictions of
web applets and applications were not properly enforced (CVE-2008-1185,
CVE-2008-1186).
John Heasman of NGSSoftware discovered that the Java Plug-in does
not properly enforce the same origin policy (CVE-2008-1192).
Chris Evans of the Google Security Team discovered multiple
unspecified vulnerabilities within the Java Runtime Environment Image
Parsing Library (CVE-2008-1193, CVE-2008-1194).
Gregory Fleischer reported that web content fetched via the "jar:"
protocol was not subject to network access restrictions
(CVE-2008-1195).
Chris Evans and Johannes Henkel of the Google Security Team
reported that the XML parsing code retrieves external entities even
when that feature is disabled (CVE-2008-0628).
Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities might allow for escalation of
privileges (CVE-2008-0657).
Impact
A remote attacker could entice a user to run a specially crafted applet
on a website or start an application in Java Web Start to execute
arbitrary code outside of the Java sandbox and of the Java security
restrictions with the privileges of the user running Java. The attacker
could also obtain sensitive information, create, modify, rename and
read local files, execute local applications, establish connections in
the local network, bypass the same origin policy, and cause a Denial of
Service via multiple vectors.
Workaround
There is no known workaround at this time.
Resolution
All Sun JRE 1.6 users should upgrade to the latest version:
Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.